As pr professionals we are given the task of promoting a pr clients event, but then sometimes asked how can we get more people to attend the event from previous years. This year we worked on a local RV Show that is sponsored by the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA. As in the past few years working with this consumer event, we looked at having some sports legends meet and greet visitors. Knowing that many RVers enjoy different sports, and a lot of them will park their RV at the stadiums the night before, we decided to bring some of the greats in Baseball and Football. Our local publicity plan for the 63rd RVIA California RV Show included having the opening weekend (Oct.9) of the 10-day be kicked off with Miss California USA doing the opening. Then on Saturday and Sunday we had Steve Garvey (LA Dodgers), Jim Abbott (Angels) with sports host Roger Lodge, and an NFL Hall Famer, Eric Dickerson draw a large crowd for the first three days. Also, we had lots of media cover the event a couple of days prior to the opening. This week we had other media attend that included a Chinese TV station. The coming weekend we are having another local TV station plus two radio stations (including Vic the Brick) doing live broadcast. And to make the final weekend of the show be successful, we have Rick Harrison (TV reality star on Pawn Stars) do a meet and greet. We did keep the focus on the introduction of the 2016 model RVs from over 45 manufacturers so visitors who attended the show would know what new features they can expect to see at the show. The sports legends gave people another reason to see their favorite athlete while shopping for their new RV.

There are many ways to give some “punch” to an event, and if you understand the audience that will be attending, it is best to tie-in something that will attract them to the show. Publicity is more than sending out press releases, or having a press conference, we look at publicity as a means to communicate a message to a client’s customer. Keeping this in mind should open your creative juices to find that “hook” to give your next event the punch it needs.

If your company is planning an event, give George Carson a call. There’s a good chance you will be pleased to see what he can do to make it more exciting and eventful for your customers. Call him at 949-477-9400

How many times a day, or a week have you or your pr clients used search engines? And of those times, how many were repeated searches, such as the weather, traffic, places to eat, sports results of your favorite teams, currency exchange, etc?

If this has frustrated you by re-doing these searches, even bookmarks are not reliable, because you need to go through all those bookmarks to find what you want, then read on!

Google’s Next Big Thing

Google is now “leading the pack” again with something they call Google NOW. This unique tool is the future that Google hopes to one day replace search engines, or at least that’s what they would hope for. Why? To put their competition out of business, of course.

If you are a publicity firm, or a pr client, then this could be an asset for you when doing all those searches. For example let’s look at traffic. It will automatically update in real time, the traffic situation by giving you alternate routes on the spot! You need to let Google NOW know your route, which is one of the many things you need to input into their database. Some concerns are the privacy of Google knowing your habits, your likes, and places you frequent. Well, stop worrying, they have been collecting this for years. Same is true with Yahoo, MSN and any other searches you have done over the past 10 years.

So take hold of these new innovations that keep changing our lives by learning how to use them to your benefit. Remember, change is the only constant in our lives, so trying to fight change can be a waste of time and energy. And if you want to know what else Google has planned, well it is called Google Glass. Check it out and see what is planned for the near future.

You can read more on this topic and the viewpoint from other reporters like Cris Crum who has a good perspective on how Google NOW may change your way of using Google in the near future.

Want to learn how to use street smart marketing and web marketing through publicity, then give George Carson a call. He can get your company going in the right direction.

How difficult can it be to send a press release to the Wall Street Journal, or get your company featured on a national TV news show, like Diane Sawyer? Actually, it is very difficult. Sending the release alone is easy. Getting the reporters to take serious notice of what you sent, that’s difficult. And harder yet, is to make your company be newsworthy in their eyes.

National and Local Publicity

Getting any reporters attention requires relationships. A good public relations agency has developed strong relationships with the media. This doesn’t happen overnight. Unless you have a world changing product, or a unique service, it may be a challenge to just get any media to listen to what you have to say. With all the world politics today, disasters, and 3rd world revolutions, getting your 15 minutes of fame may not be as easy as you expect. PR Clients tend to believe they have the best product, best story, or the best new widget and the world needs to know this. Well, as true as this might be, if the presentation to the media isn’t as exciting, then you just lost that pr opportunity.

Packaging (presenting) your story is critical, as is the timing. Putting fluff into your release or story is not a good idea. Keep the facts real, keep the information short and don’t SELL your story using sales pitch language. Remember, reporters are people. They do not want to be sold to or told that you are the greatest at what you do. Explain why your product or service will help others, or solve a specific problem. That is just one way to get the attention of the media.

If you want to get local publicity, you need to do the same thing as a national publicity story. A good local publicity agency will have a good relationship with the local media, and they will know how to package your story to the selected reporters that best meets your pr marketing strategy.

Learn more about getting national or local publicity from Carson Marketing, Inc. Call for a NO COST consultation meeting to discuss how your company can be in the news. Contact George Carson at 949-477-9400.

With the new battle among Google, Yahoo, and Bing to become the “choice search engine” by users, it is important to keep your pr marketing strategies current. That means knowing how SEO’s are finding your site to give it a ranking position in their index. Keywords are very important, and keeping the content fresh is also key to a successful web site.

These tips below to optimize your site are used by professional web marketing companies and should be added to your pr marketing strategy as an on-going program. Just optimizing your site once a year, or every 6 months can cause your site to loose its page ranking. Why? Because your competitors are more aggressive today than ever before to keep their company in front of potential customers. If you do only the minimum web marketing for your site, then do not expect customers to find you. Or to see your site listed on the first page of any search engine.

Let’s look at a few pr marketing strategies for web site optimization.

1- KEYWORDS. You need to do more than add a few keywords to your web site html. You need to research which keywords are most often used by your customers. Don’t guess, or use what YOU think are the best keywords, use an analyzer tool, or contact a professional.

2- FRESH CONTENT. Keep the web site fresh with new information on a regular basis. Do this every 3 months. It isn’t necessary to change every page of text. Have your blog be part of your site, and add a link to your Twitter account.

3- USE LOCAL TERMS/WORDS. Not all businesses are nationwide. Even if you are a national company, be local with your site. Use words that relate to location. Such as “local publicity in Orange County”, or “full service advertising in Santa Ana, CA”.

4- DISCUSS YOUR INVENTORY. If you have a cosmetic or beauty store, mention what new items, or clearance products you have. That will help your visitors and those surfing for products know your inventory.

These are just a few tips to optimize your site to get better ranking and positioning with the search engines. For more in-depth, professional help contact George Carson at Carson Marketing, Inc. at 949-477-9400.

Seems the popularity of Twitter is slowing becoming a follower’s site rather than a business site. Let me explain. Yes, Twitter is great for those who want to know what celebrities are doing, or what your friends are doing at the time. But for pr clients, it can be a great marketing tool to get higher rankings in Google, as well as get more traffic to your web site.

The great thing about Twitter, you can be a local orange county business, or a national company, even a global business and get people to follow you. So why, if you are a pr client, wouldn’t you want followers? It is a great pr marketing tool! When done correctly, you can actually increase traffic to your site. But remember, the content in those 140 characters need to be inviting. Don’t try to sell junk, or build traffic to only sell ad space on your site. Followers can be an important factor in growing your twitter name and your business web site.

I read a study by Rapleaf stating “active” Twitter users studied (40,000) had this in their report: “The most followed users gained followers at a faster rate than less popular users, contributing to a growing ‘popularity gap.'” Also, “Users in the top 0.1% have around 5x as many followers as users in the top 1% and about 40x as many followers as users in the top 10%.”

Basically this is saying that many top celebs are being followed faster, and that people are more interested in the following than building their own followers. One writer uses the words “popularity gap” to explain this. That’s where the business part is loosing ground with this powerful pr marketing tool. If you understand this, it can actually be a good thing. Because you can use Twitter to build an awareness campaign for your service or business before too many companies realize the “gap” in their pr marketing strategy. So all you pr clients, wake up. Now is the time to improve your branding and increase traffic with Twitter. If not, your competition will just “twit” past you and gain more market share.

Your publicity campaign should include local publicity media. This could be an Orange County publicity campaign, or a local media publication, such as the LA or OC Business Journals. Some local publicity is targeted to a specific audience, such as Children’s Resource Directory, which goes to all the Orange County outlets. It’s designed to help parents in this region find good sources for their children, whether it be about child upbringing, health issues, or the arts (music, dance, etc).

PR clients need to stay in touch with their local community programs. It is one method to gain local publicity. Although the rewards may not be immediate, you will see an increase in loyal customers. Another method is to distribute press releases in your local publications. This is just one form of building a solid local publicity campaign. The Internet now offers a wide variety of web sites to further build upon this local branding campaign. Many of the local community publications have on-line web sites. In addition; you can find many regional and local sites that target your specific market.

So the next time you begin to plan your publicity campaign, be sure to have local publicity as part of the overall program. We have found this to be very rewarding for many of our clients. Especially now when pr clients are looking for ways to increase sales, but maintain a tight budget. If your publicity campaign needs some local direction, give George Carson a call. His Carson Marketing, Inc company has the expertise to get your company noticed which in turn will create more customers.

You can no longer depend on the traditional methods alone to market your products or services. To have a web site is a move in the right direction. The site alone cannot be your only window into the world of the Internet. Your PR Marketing Strategy needs to include updates to your site, as well as a host of different social networking programs. Why you ask? Well, first of all, if you are asking that question, then your light years behind your competition and need to quickly contact a professional pr marketing person, or local orange county publicity pro to get your company noticed.

Hey, if you think this is just marketing bull, then you need to read a recent article in B-to-B magazine about the top Fortune 500 C-Level execs using the Internet. They are not asking their employees to do the work; these C-Level execs are doing it themselves. The research done by Google reveals that eighty-three percent of C-Level execs use the Internet on a daily basis. These are companies doing over $1 billion in sales! What are they doing when surfing? According to the research, 64% of these execs are locating business information everyday. Maybe now you can begin to see how important it is to have an updated, professional web site. These top-level execs could be looking for information about your company. Is your web site or social networking campaign current? If you still think this is a lot of hot air, then you are definitely missing an opportunity to increase sales.

Here is another great bit of information. 1 in 5 of these executives prefer to see videos on the companies they research to reading text. That shows you it is time to include podcasts, or YouTube videos with your site and social networking. So what are you waiting for? It isn’t too late to get a powerful pr marketing strategy together, if you have the right pr team. If you need help, then give George Carson at Carson Marketing, Inc a call. If you choose to do nothing, it could be your company that soon appears in the “auction sales” listings.

Scary thought, but we are getting closer to this reality. Well, sort of.
If you are a pr client wondering which pr marketing strategy is right for your company, then you just might want to ask that question to “hunch“. What is hunch? Although it is still in beta test, this is the first sentence in their description– “Hunch is a decision-making site that gets smarter the more it’s used”. Ok, if that isn’t enough of an answer, this further description might give you a better answer: “After asking you 10 questions or fewer, Hunch will propose a concrete and customized result for hundreds of decisions of every kind: What kind of car should I buy? Should I switch to a Mac? Should I dump my boyfriend? Where should I go on vacation? Should I get a tattoo?“

Do you now get the point of my headline? Are we becoming that lazy or not willing to use our brains that we want a computer program to help us make these types of decisions? What happens in the next 10 years, or sooner, is going to be really interesting.

But not to be overlooked, Microsoft is still pushing to be king of search. They too have revamped their ZUNE seo for the new Bing. Know what BING stands for? Get this, But Its Not Google. Sorry Microsoft, the “but” is still Google. Although the graphics might give BING a new look, Google will easily overshadow any changes Microsoft makes, quickly with their development team. Remember, we just saw the WAVE recently. Well, I am sure Google has a few other wild tricks in their lab that will launch soon and take the thunder away from BING, and possibly from hunch, after it launches.

So, listen up all you pr clients, publicity experts, and novice publicity people. Keep using these tools as they become available. Because when you use them for the advancement of your national pr campaign, or local publicity event, it could just get the attention you need, or learn something to make that pr event a success. When you need a web marketing pro to keep your publicity campaign in the front of your competitors, call George Carson at Carson Marketing, Inc.— it could be the best call you make this year!

If you have been reading my blogs you already know about www.cuil.com. It’s neat and has some great features to envy Google. But there is another search engine that most people do not even realize exists. It’s http://search.twitter.com

Yes, Twitter actually has a very good search and gives good results. You can get local publicity information. Unlike Google, or Cuil, or Yahoo, this offers a different type of searching. For example, an article titled ” Twitter Search Will Be Powerful” by Joe Marchese explains his experience. When the earthquake happened in Southern CA the other day, he did a Google search to get more info. Joe had just landed and was eager to find more about the local news in Orange County and Los Angeles and level of the quake. Google provided hundreds of sites, but nothing current to that day’s event. Then he tried Twitter. The search allowed him to read people’s reaction to the quake. He was able to see/read the effects of the earthquake immediately. This is how local publicity in Orange County, or Los Angeles can be accesses immediately.

This is not to say Google, or Yahoo, or even Cuil cannot offer this information. It now shows us that search has become more than an encyclopedia of pages, but can now become a tool for other uses. Twitter is opening the door to new search. And according to Joe, he believes that Google (or someone else) will purchase Twitter to gain this feature it doesn’t offer. Sounds right to me. Joe wrote an article in March about his perspective on this.

Remember, what we thought was a new way to do things just a couple of years ago, actually just last year, is old news. This fast paced social media is teaching us that we are going to see new territories and discoveries opening up shortly. Who knows, this blog site just might become old news next year, and I’ll be communicating in a different platform.

If you want to keep on track with social marketing, do it now. Call George Carson today. 949-477-9400.

Yeah, this is a topic that seems to appear everywhere, from local orange county publicity sites to national web marketers. But it still needs to be repeated, even if you only do one of these important rules to keep your web site optimized and search engine friendly, you will be ahead of the competition.

You can find a lot of information about SEO optimization on the web. If you do a search in Google for the words “seo optimization” you get over 6 million searches. Too many to read, and which ones do you choose? You can’t only select the top 5 or 8 searches, because most of those only give a definition of seo’s. Well, I’ll make this simple and easy enough for any local publicity agency or even a novice web designer to do.

It’s no secret but here are the basic rules to keeping the web site fresh and seo friendly:

1- Keyword and keyphrases. Although many web marketers might dispute the fact that keywords and keyphrases may not be the pr marketing strategy to use, it still holds a lot of attention for seo’s and their methods of rankings. To keep your keywords and phrases current, you need to do some research. It is necessary to find what are the most requested terms/words for your specific industry and place them into your meta keyword/phrases. But do not overload or stuff your keyword, meaning do not put more than 12 to 15. This is what I recommend. Otherwise the seo’s will move you down the rankings.

2. Page titles. Very, very important. Do this correctly and it will pay off. Each title should be different for each page, and include the keywords you use. The best way to understand using titles is to think of yourself looking through books at a library. If the title helps you to stop and look deeper into that book because it relates to what you age looking for, then that’s how the titles work in your web site for the search engines.

3. Meta description. Similar to your page titles, these help the seo’s provide the description to your listings. Each page of your site should have its own meta description. Keep in mind to not have the description be more than 155 words. This is one of the areas that you can control since the seo’s will grab your descriptions for the listings.

4. Keeping the site fresh. You should make it a point to refresh the site every 3 or 4 months. Not change the site, but modify the text, refresh the keywords, and re-visit how the elements are positioned on the site. Then after doing this, re-submit the site to all the seo’s and directories.

There are many other things that will help keep your site listed and ranked high, for example these would be: a) blogging, b) publicity releases, c) articles published, d) RSS feeds, e) social networking, f) have an on-going pr marketing strategy plan to assure the site meets it’s goals, just to list a few.

There are over a billion sites/pages and millions added everyday. If you do not have an on-going web marketing plan, then it’s time to implement one. Do you need professional help that is affordable? Give George Carson a call at 949-477-9400. Carson Marketing, Inc has been helping pr clients with their web marketing needs for over 10 years.